“He was alone?” Jay asked in alarm.
Her head whipped his way. “No, he was not alone. The fuckingnannywas in the water with him, onlyshewas edited out.”
“Experts can detect editing.”
“I’m sure they can,” she said slowly, as if Jay were the child here, “but when you have the judge and everyone else in your pocket, experts don’t count. Did I mention,” she added sweetly, “that every employee of his has to sign a confidentiality agreement? Did I mention that if any one of them breaks it, he or she becomes unemployable in the state? Did I mention that Carter makes that happen enough, so it’s a lesson for the rest?”
“Well, someone’s speaking up now,” Edward said, reminding us why we were there in the first place.
“Our cook.” Briefly, her voice softened. “She always thought Carter was a bully. She quit after I left.”
“And you know this how?” Jay asked.
“Facebook.”
“So thirteen years later she’s suddenly not afraid of Brandt?”
“Oh, I’m sure she is. But she got her citizenship, and the family she’swith are artists. They’re politically active andnoton Carter’s side of the aisle, so if he goes after her, they’ll go after him right back. But she has a special-needs child who must be a special-needs adult by now. I’m sure she needs the money, and I feel bad for her, really I do.” Her eyes went to Ben, voice rising. “But if she talks with someone about this, I’m toast. If word gets back to Carter, it’s all over. I was charged withkidnapping.”
Jay was making rewind motions with his hand. “You’re running away with this, Grace—”
“Well, wouldn’t you?” she cried, starting to get up until I pulled her back. “Kidnapping means prison, with no hope of bail because I’d be a flight risk for sure, and what would happen to my son then, Jay?Ifmy son isn’t locked up himself—big if right now—he would be returned to his so-called rightful guardian, who lies and cheats and steals and is about as transparent as quicksand, all of which is what that asshole would teach my son”—her glazed eyes went to Ben—“my son, who made a gross mistake and needs to pay for it in a way that teaches him right from wrong. His father would teach him that his only mistake was getting caught. Is that what you want him to learn?” she asked Ben, then Jay, “Is it?”
Jay crouched at her side again. His voice was as gentle as I’d ever heard it. “We do not want that, none of us, which is why we need to know more. I’m trying to get a picture here, so I need you to go back to the divorce. When did you find out about the photos and videos?”
Like a balloon losing air, she sank back into the sofa. “When he told me we were getting divorced. He didn’t ask. He told. He said I’d been cheating on him, said I was a lush, said I was a lousy mother, and he showed me enough of the pictures to let me know what I was up against. So I’m standing there in shock, and he hands me an agreement to sign. I would leave the marriage with nothing more than what I’d brought into it, meaning the clothes on my back.”
“Did you sign it?” Jay asked.
“Hell, no. Chris was included in what I would leave behind, no visitation rights at all. Carter wanted me totally erased from their lives. I said no.”
“What did Brandt say to that?” Jay asked.
“That he’d see me in court. He moved out of our house and into the new one he’d bought for his girlfriend, who, p.s., was pregnant. Impregnating women is his specialty. I think it’s his way of controlling a woman, like once she’s pregnant, she’ll do whatever he asks. Only the new one would help his career. She was the daughter of a state Supreme Court justice.”
“Did the divorce ever get to court?”
Grace snorted.
“You had a lawyer, didn’t you?”
“Legal aid,” she said and, when Jay frowned, added, “I had no money. Carter cut off credit cards, bank accounts, everything.”
“So how did you get away with Chris?”
She folded her arms, and, for the first time, I saw an inkling of pride. “I might have been naive about how far he would go to annihilate me, but I’m not stupid. I told you I dreamed about leaving. Well, it wasn’t all fantasy. While he was piecing together damning evidence, I was putting together documentation under an alias. Part of my backup was a stash of money. I kept adding to it, and it was never huge, but it was there when I needed it.”
I was in awe. “How did you know how to get documentation?” It was such a ballsy Grace thing to do, one I would never in my life, not even in my darkest moments, have dared.
“Immigrants,” she said. “They were all over Santa Fe, even undocumented ones on our property, and they had always liked me. I talked with them. Most employers didn’t. So they shared. I was safe with them. For obvious reasons, they avoided the authorities.”
I was thinking that as zany as she was, she could be remarkably resourceful, when Ben said, “So you and Chris left it all behind.”
Grace smiled then. It was the first wide honest-to-goodness Grace smile that had come from her in days. “Not all of it. Carter wasn’t the only one who gathered evidence, only mine was legit.”
She stopped talking. Her smile faded as we watched, replaced by a look of pure… evil was the word that came to my mind, only I couldn’t find fault. What I saw had to do with backbone and intent, with revenge, with justice.
“We’re waiting, Grace,” Jay prompted, as only the lawyer could.
